I should probably start thinking about joining a writer's group to keep me disciplined during the summer months. Early on, colleagues had invited me to join groups, but I always declined because I didn't feel that I was at that stage yet. I wanted to focus on my own writing, and not have to devote time to reading other people's work-aside from the novels I was already reading.
I was considering a group based near my home. In addition to its regular monthly meeting, it splits off into sub groups, so I'd be with two other people. We've already begun to trade work online and will likely meet at a cafe sometime soon. I'm not sure whether I should stick with it, because once I commit, I commit!
Speaking of writer's groups, a small press exchange member mentioned a writers group based in Manhattan (how I wished I lived in Manhattan!). Jenn is a member!
Here's their mandate:
A friendly New York City writers group for genre fiction writers. The group supports individuals interested in completing their work and getting published. Those writing short story collections, novellas or novels preferred. Young adult, adult and erotica fiction welcome. The following genres are preferred: Mystery/thriller, science fiction, humor/satire, adventure, historical, romance and fantasy. Meetings take place in southern Manhattan weeknights or Sundays. The group's mission is to aid members in the improvement of their work through constructive critiques, to share market information and network with other writers and to provide a venue for general camaraderie and sharing of like interests.
I always get a really deep sinking feeling when I get my SASE's back—my gut drops out. Today I got two, one from a spec fiction magazine, and another from a speculative literature agent. But, to my surprise, both were requests—not acceptances, of course, but requests to see more work! The latter is actually from the literary agent's assistant, who passed the query along to another agent who wants the full ms. No more sinking feelings after all!
On an unrelated note, why is it that no matter what, it always takes 2 or 3 attempts for me to get my mailing labels to print correctly? And speaking of, what happened to plain old shipping-style mailing label templates in Word? Now the only templates they have for that size have festive themes on them.
Finally making some great progress on several projects. I suspected this might happen; I got a lot of writing done today.
One of strongest points as a writer is that I can write excellent action sequences-coupled with the software I blogged about before, this has mean I can concentrate on the action of the scene, rather than the plot or character (I've loosely plotted beforehand). I can see thse scenes played out in my head, and when I get down to writing, it's like I am transcribing a movie, simply moving my fingers as fast as I can to translate what I see on 'screen'. As a result, I write quickly, faster than normal, really. So in contrast to the last few days where it was a struggle to write, today I sat down and moved my fingers on the keys and all of a sudden I five pages poured forth.
And I was just getting started.. So at the end of the writing day, I had racked up 17 pages. Will check in tomorrow. So far so good!
No, not that kind of software; I mean the kind of software that will help you with your writing. One that helps you get — and stay — organized.
For someone who writes, any little thing that may help has got to be a good thing. And this is greater than your average little thing. I can't rememebr where I found this piece of software, but I really dig it. Actually probably from a random blogger recommendation.
It works in the same manner as some paid software, but it remains free. It's called ywriter. It's up to version 3 now. Here's some of its features:
Organise your novel using a 'project'.
Add files to the project, each containing a chapter.
Add a summary to each file, showing the scenes in each chapter.
Print out summary cards, showing the structure of your novel.
Display the word count for every file in the project, along with a total.
Saves a log file every day, showing words per file and the total. (Tracks your progress)
Saves automatic backups at user-specified intervals.
Allows multiple scenes within chapters
Viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome fields for each scene.
Storyboard view, a visual layout of your work.
Re-order scenes within chapters.
Move scenes from one chapter to another.
Automatic chapter renumbering.
I am still learning to use it but it is well laid out.
I moved away from the habit of writing in a linear fashion (starting at page 1 and grinding out the pages until I fleshed out some kind of narrative). The author of this software phrases it best:
I really struggled over my first novel because I wrote whole slabs of text into a great big word processor file and tried to make sense of the whole thing at once. I then tried saving each chapter to individual files with great long descriptive filenames, but moving scenes around was a nuisance and I couldn't get an overview of the whole thing (or easily search for one word amongst 32 files).
Anyway, all of your 'scenes' are stored in RTF files, and these can be edited with regular word processor. You can add multiple characters to every scene, the way information is presented and used is much more logical. The editor also allows setting of font style and size, plus bold, italics and underline.
Imagine going to work one day only to forget how to do your job.
I have determined that I'm suffering from writer's block. I have a lot to say, but I just don't have the energy to struggle for the words that normally come easily. So, that's cool. I'll take a break from any real writing, and just surf the net and/or do nothing at all.
Do you know the longest word that can be spelt on the top row of a QWERTY keyboard?
It's 'typewriter'. The keyboard was designed with that particular quirk in mind. It might an urban myth, but I heard that the QWERTY layout was designed to actually slow down typing so that the hammers would not jam.
Also, a door to door salesman could quickly demo the machine by typing out "Typewriter" with one hand on the top row.
I took Thursday off from work. I needed a day where I didn't have to sit at the computer, answer the phone or any questions.
Usually after a day like that I rush home, scarf some food down and try to get a couple hours of writing in.
Instead of doing that, I slept in until 8am (when I was younger I never would have thought that one day I would consider waking up at 8am, sleeping in), ate some cheerios and took a very long shower before heading downstairs to write.
I had a great writing day. I let go and just wrote. Finally I was able to listen to that advice I have been told so long. It wasn't easy, however, but I think I happened upon a good technique.
At first, I wasn't getting much accomplished other than just getting frustrated (and surfing the web).
I finally realized what I could do to be a little more productiive. I broke each task down into one hour blocks. I have a half dozen books to read and write reviews for, two edits to be done to manuscripts I would like to submit to online mags and a little free writing.
If I didn't do this when I was editing, I would think about the reviews. When I was sitting reading, I was thinking about my me skipping out at work. My thoughts would spin like truck tires in mud, never gaining traction on what I was doing at the time, but on everything else that needed to be done.
So I decided to break it all up. I would concentrate on one project for one hour at a time. I read for one hour, then edited for an hour, then wrote for an hour, etc.
And ended up getting more done in a few hours than I had all weekend. I gave myself permission to do what needed done for a specific amount of time and not worry about the other stuff. And it worked.
So I'm trying to write more. And that brings me to the point of this blog, if not the point of this particular entry. I'm going to start setting, and tracking goals for my work and my writing -- and post them to this blog.
I remember reading once that most writers will use any excuse they can find to not write. I'm prone to this, I can't write when my girlfriend is home. Even when she is occupied with other activities, the possibility that she could interrupt keeps me from even trying. And it's really just a MASSIVE excuse to get away with procrastination.
I've set my word count at 1000 words a day minimum, averaged at the end of each month, and 500 words minimum no matter what. Some months I sail through them without a problem, but there are sometimes months when I'm writing a lot of words in the last few days to meet that goal. I maintain an Excel spreadsheet to keep track, and I'm very strict about keeping it up to date so I know just where I stand.
Some people count in pages rather than words. This is especially nice if you handwrite your first drafts - I don't, however, I'm all computer baby!
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For someone who writes, any little thing that may help has got to be a good thing. And this is greater than your average little thing. I can't rememebr where I found this piece of software, but I really dig it. Actually probably from a random blogger recommendation.
I took Thursday off from work. I needed a day where I didn't have to sit at the computer, answer the phone or any questions.